Boy Threatens Babysitter With Steak Knife Over Homework Request

After his live-in babysitter asked him about the status of his homework, a teenage boy allegedly brandished a steak knife and proceeded to threaten the poor woman. The Associated Press reports that a 13-year-old boy from North Carolina apparently wasn’t in the mood to be questioned by his caretaker, prompting him to act out in an extremely violent manner.

According to the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, the 31-year-old babysitter innocently asked the boy about his homework while making him a snack after school. When the kid didn’t respond to her inquiry, she proceeded to repeat the question. Realizing that he wasn’t going to freely offer up any homework-related information, the babysitter made a move to look inside his backpack. That, apparently got the boy’s attention.

“She heard him make a noise behind her and when she turned around, the juvenile was standing there holding a steak knife in his right hand,” the sheriff’s report explained. “He told her he would stab her if she didn’t get out of his book bag.”

Not surprising, the woman promptly made a call to local authorities. For threatening his babysitter with the steak knife, the teenager spent a bit of time in police custody. He was eventually released into the care of his mom. However, there’s currently no word of what, exactly, the kid didn’t want his babysitter to see or whether or not he was up to his armpits in geometry homework.

The Salisbury Post states that, while a court date has not been set as of this writing, juvenile services can request a hearing. According to the Vancouver Sun, homework and an overloaded schedule can often lead to an extreme amount of stress and anxiety for students and parents. However, none of their proposed solutions involved the use of a steak knife.